breaks and keeps the alternative minimum tax from hitting working families and avoids a big cut in medicare payments and prevents tax hikes for 98% of americans. tax rates will go up for couples making over $450,000. democrats gave many on that. the republicans won a investigate ribby raising the estate tax threshold to over $5 million but the 2% payroll tax cut is gone! expect to see that hit your paycheck starting this month. >> tax relief has been achieved. now is the time for the president to work with congress to address government overspending. >> reporter: and the debt ceiling, before leaving for hawaii early this morning president obama urmged congress to raise it. >> we can't not pay bills that we already incurred. if congress refuses to give the united states government the ability to pay these bills on time, the consequences for the entire global economy would be catastroph catastrophic. >> reporter: no word when the president will sign the bill so in the end it was one day late but just in time for nervous veshz as markets re-opened this morning. tracie potts, nbc news, washingt